Off To Join The Navy Cake﻿

The Story behind this Cake

I designed this cake for a young man who going off to join the Royal Australian Navy. His mother wanted to make the celebration very special, and wanted a real WOW factor cake as the centrepiece for the event. I think I captured it well in this cake. Firstly we have the anchor on top with I made from gumpaste. I found an image of an anchor online (who knew that they would be so many to choose from) printed to the size I liked and cut the shape out with an exacto knife. I let it harden with a skewer in it, to help it stand vertically in the cake. Once dried sufficiently, I attached the gumpaste rope. Once that also hardened I use my airbrush with Americolor metallic gold to make it pop.

The top tier was to represent the sea with ruffled waves in navy. I created the colour with Satin Ice blue and some Satin Ice black, and a whole heap of Americolor Navy gel paste. I used a cutting wheel with a scalloped edge , and a ball tool to thin out the edges. I only used 10cm pieces at a time to create the effect. The second tier is of course rope, which was achieved by using my extruder. Very time consuming, but wow!, what an effect.

And the bottom tier is the Naval uniform that all Navy cadets will wear. I found an image online of the uniform and tried my best to get every detail just right. And I think it looks awesome! So very please with it.

Once I have finished decorating any of my cakes, I use a steamer to help remove any cornstarch that my still be present on the fondant. But I also love that it makes the colours of the fondant come to life. If you have never tried it before give it a go. You will wish you had learnt this trick long ago.